It's a dogs' life

George Mason revels in its sudden acclaim but hopes Final Four spotlight shines brightly on its academics too

March 28, 2006|By William Neikirk, Tribune senior correspondent.

FAIRFAX, Va. — In the heart of George Mason University's campus Monday, the American patriot's statue was decked out like a superhero.

A green T-shirt thrown over his head proclaimed, "Go Kryptonite Kidz," a reference to the material that weakened Superman himself. There was a long Superman-like cape around the statue's neck. Near his left foot, a sign said, "The slipper fits. Go Mason."

Indeed a Cinderella atmosphere prevailed on this suburban campus of Washington, D.C., after the underdog George Mason Patriots upset top-seeded Connecticut on Sunday to vault into the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.

The team's success raised campus hopes that George Mason also would become known as the Cinderella university and wipe out a reputation as a commuter school inferior to such institutions as Georgetown, Virginia, William and Mary and George Washington.

At the college's Johnson Center, where students gather each day to dine and talk, there was a feeling that playing basketball well finally would give George Mason a chance to show it is on an academic par with better-recognized universities.

"I think we are going to get recognized more as a university," said Maya Scott, a senior who combines work and college and commutes to school 45 minutes from nearby Arlington. "Academically, we have wonderful teachers and they are very passionate."

"Mason is on the ups," said Matt Jupin, 20, a junior economics major, as he sat with his friend, Brian Giblin, a junior business major.

Yet professors and students would not deny that outsiders looked down upon the university's academic stature and that contributed to an inferiority complex they do not see as justified.

"Part of it is that we are so young," said Paula Crawford, an associate art professor. "Nobody ever heard of us."

No more.

There's nothing like success on the basketball court to get the nation's attention. The Patriots came out of nowhere to defeat powers such as Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut when few people knew where George Mason was located, much less the conference it represented--the Colonial Athletic Association.

Coach Jim Larranaga became a huge hero on campus for his ability to keep the team loose at big moments, such as telling his players on Sunday that CAA stood for Connecticut Assassins Association. And for his halftime pep talk in one game in which he referred to "Kryptonite Mason" as a team that could stop superheroes.

Founded in 1972, and now based on the 750-acre campus in Fairfax, George Mason has more than 29,000 students and two other campuses in the sprawling Northern Virginia suburbs. Only 4,000 students live on the main campus, although plans exist to build more dormitories so it has a greater feel as a traditional campus.

GMU, originally a branch of the University of Virginia, is a creation of the rise in population and wealth of the Washington, D.C., suburbs. It's named for one of the Founding Fathers.

The dean of admissions, Andrew Flagel, predicted a surge in applications as a result of the Final Four appearance and said the basketball team would give the school the chance like never before to show the rest of the world its progress as an institution of higher learning.

"There is no doubt that no amount of marketing or recruitment or success gives us a chance to tell our story to so many people like the Final Four," Flagel said.

In the early days of its existence, its academic standing and the quality of its student body were suspect. Now, the school boasts of having two Nobel laureates in economics, James Buchanan and Vernon Smith, and of having the country's most diverse campus, with 140 nationalities represented among its students.

Being a commuter school is a bit of a plus in today's busy and mobile world, said Flagel, and several students said they preferred to attend college in a large area like Washington, D.C., rather than in a smaller, more confined city.

Joy and optimism abounded on campus Monday. Students stood in line for an hour or more to buy Final Four T-shirts from the campus bookstore. They watched a huge TV screen in the Johnson Center replaying the UConn game. "Go Mason" signs were all over campus.

Crawford said the university provost sent out an e-mail to faculty members to go easy on students Monday, since there had been much celebrating the night before.

Giblin said he had heard about the e-mail but that his finance professor didn't let up an inch and insisted upon giving the class a test. "It was a hard exam," he said.

In front of the George Mason statue, Gail Passino, who graduated in 1987, and Jane Jones, who graduated in 1985, carried bags filled with George Mason sports souvenirs, including flags to put on their lawns. They said their college is beginning to get the credit it has long deserved.

At Chesterbrook Elementary School in McLean, Va., Michelle Sansone, who got her bachelor's and master's degrees from George Mason, said, "I think the victory is going to give George Mason a bigger name."

Jim Lepore, an associate professor of dance who reveled in the climate, said the university can take advantage of it only once.

"It's never going to happen again," he said. "We'll be expected to be greater in the future."